March Madness gets a makeover

Teams may play early rounds closer to home

When the United Center plays host to the first round of the Midwest Regional at the 2002 NCAA men's basketball tournament, it may be a Midwest Regional in name only.

In a move sure to have college basketball fans scratching their heads when they fill out their tournament brackets, the NCAA Division I basketball committee Thursday adopted a new bracketing procedure beginning with next season's tournament.

After the selection committee determines the top four seeds in each regional, it will then attempt to place those schools close to their geographic location for the first two rounds, even though that location could be a different region.

For example if Duke is the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, the committee could allow the Blue Devils to play their first- and second-round games at a South or East Regional site, which would be closer to North Carolina. If Duke were to win both games and advance, it would then advance to the West Regional site.

"The committee wanted to maintain the event as a `national' tournament, with four evenly balanced regions, while at the same time keeping as many teams as close to their natural geographic area as possible," said a statement from Big East commissioner and committee chairman Mike Tranghese.

An impetus for the change came in the West Regional in Boise, Idaho, this past March. Four schools from near Washington, D.C. area--Georgetown, Maryland, George Mason and Hampton--were sent to Boise.

This season all four schools could still be put in the West Regional, but they could play first- and second-round games at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., which will play host to a first-round regional in 2002. The winner would then travel to San Jose for the West Regional semifinals and final.

The NCAA hopes that by keeping schools near their geographic base it will give parents and supporters a better chance of seeing their team play in person and reduce the amount of class time missed by players. Again, in the example of the West Regional at Boise, both Maryland and Georgetown went from Boise to Anaheim.

"We also believe this change will minimize the need for teams to be away from their campuses for long periods of time," Tranghese said.

To accomplish this goal, the committee will place the schools in "pods" for the first- and second-round sites. The pods will consists of four seeds each: the first, 16th, eighth and ninth; fourth, 13th, fifth and 12th; second, 15th, seventh and 10th; third, 14th, sixth and 11th.

Each regional first-round site will have two pods. It's possible the winner of each "pod" could advance to different regionals.

For example the United Center next March could have a No. 1-seed pod and a fourth-seed pod. Even though the United Center is technically a Midwest regional site, neither of the pods need be from the Midwest. The two teams that survive at the United Center could go to any of the four regionals: South at Rupp Arena; San Jose in the West; Georgia Dome in the East; or Madison, Wis., in the Midwest.

The 2002 first-round sites are the United Center and Oklahoma City in the Midwest; Pittsburgh and Washington in the East; Greenville, S.C., and St. Louis in the South; and Albuquerque and Sacramento in the West.